from Paula Morgan, who has been the Beadwork Advisor for About.Com, and more recently, an advisor with Bead-Space.com, and Blog Mistress/Consultant. - 1/23/2009

Regarding Jewelry Design Study Under the Tuscan Sun

This is about an earlier post today by Bead-Space.com Member OddShop, and his reminder about the week-long series of workshops and lectures scheduled for April to be held in one of the most beautiful, inspiration and creativity-nurturing places on this Earth - Tuscany.

This workshop, titled Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry will be taught by Bead-Space Member OddShop, also known as Warren Feld, owner of one of the most magnificent bead shops in the world, Land of Odds. Warren is recognized as an expert in traditional Etruscan jewelry design and has taught extensively over the years. This workshop will focus not only on the essential techniques used to create this essential jewelry style, but will also teach you how to carry these techniques and skills into the 21st century and no matter what your style of beading or jewelry making, into your own beading or jewelry making studio.

My recommendation is, if you are able to register and attend this workshop but are just not completely sure about it, or perhaps are not sure about the instructor, the cruise company, etc. if you will trust my word, I will help you decide. Do it! Do not hesitate. Warren is an amazing teacher, an incredible beader, has an unfailing knowledge and this trip will change your life.

If you are serious about designing jewelry and want to learn how to bring the old world into the new, this is a positive investment in your professional future. If you are an established designer and want to add a bit of polish to your skills and techniques portfolio, this is an outstanding opportunity to work with a Master. If you are an “of the moment” type of designer, with no interest in historical methods or techniques, but just want to keep up with current design trends and have the ability to make those beaded jewelry pieces that are selling and being worn, this is absolutely the class investment for you, too. Current styles, ranging from the big and bold Bohemian style of Coco Chanel and her line of big beautiful adornments, combining the paste and the precious, to the stripped-down and de-constructed look of twenty different tangled chains, all covered in patina, thrown together with a variety of pearls, organza, and other frills, this is where you will learn which frills, when, why, and how.

With no basis in the history of jewelry styles, it is impossible to re-create them into bare-bones versions or into the so-over-the-top-as-to-look-turned-upside-down-and-inside-out, then without the foundation for this deconstruction, all you may design is a mess. It’s all in the details, and that is what you will bring away from your week’s stay in Tuscany.

As your Friendly Beading Advisor, I personally vouch for him as instructor, bead seller and all-around really great guy.

If you have planned to make an investment in your beading or jewelry design career this year, you would do yourself a huge favor to give this weeklong session your serious consideration. Working in the birthplace of such magnificent design with an instructor like Warren, enjoying a week in the Tuscan sun in early spring, spending time with other serious jewelers and beaders, you’ll find yourself returning to the bench refreshed and filled with new spirit, inventiveness and creative vigor. Trust me; you’ll thank yourself for years to come if you allow yourself this investment in your future as a beader and jewelry designer, and as a positive step in the right direction towards your commitment to living and creating handmade. And to steal a corny (but in this case true) phrase from an ad for hair dye or wrinkle cream or some kind of makeup - the bottom line is: you are worth it! So go, and don’t forget to send me an email and some pictures.